Government Accountability Office Publishes 2024 Report on Maternal Health Care in Jails & Prisons, cites TJP
October 23, 2024
This month the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) published Pregnant Women in State and Local Jails. Texas Jail Project was interviewed extensively for this report and cited amongst a…
Topics: GAO, GAO-25-106404, Government Accountability Office, jails, maternal health care, Pregnancy, pregnant, prisons
This month the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) published Pregnant Women in State and Local Jails. Texas Jail Project was interviewed extensively for this report and cited amongst a handful of national organizations.
The U.S. incarcerates women at the world’s highest rate. Women make up 15% of the local jail population and 8-9% of the state prison population. At the time of incarceration, 4% to 5% of women reported being pregnant. Comprehensive data on these women—including their race or ethnicity—doesn’t exist, although the Department of Justice is collecting more data for a 2025 report. The purpose of this study was to review the state of maternal health care in state prisons and jails across the county.
(Read our essay in Teen Vogue co-authored with a young woman who was forced to give birth in the largest county jail in Texas and our article in The Appeal documenting abuses and neglect of pregnant women in TX county jails.)
According to HHS, the U.S. has one of the highest maternal mortality rates among high-income nations, increasing rates of complications from pregnancy or childbirth, and persistent racial disparities in such outcomes. The U.S. also incarcerates women at the highest rate in the world, and the vast majority reside in state prisons or local jails.
The report found that the Department of Justice and Department of Health and Human Services lack information about incarcerated pregnant people and that they could support pregnant people in jails by providing mental health treatment, lactation, and mother-infant bonding programs.
Texas Jail Project has advocated extensively for legislative protections for pregnant people, which resulted in a wide range of laws starting from basic data collection on pregnant populations in county jails, to a ban on use of restraints during labor and delivery, mandatory OBGYN care, transfer to hospital on onset of labor and improved access to mental health care.